The image is actually part of National Geographic’s International Photography Contest 2009 – one of 25 examples collected by Boston.com. Check out the entries if you want a little eye candy to tide you over until dinner. [NatGeo via Boston]

The company is testing the implementation of their lighting technology alongside their medical technology in Ambient Experience suites across the world.

And luckily, the other nine modes appear far more serene than the “Australia” theme in our lead shot. Patients, in fact, are allowed to choose their own colour palette, along with accompanying sounds and video that will surround them during procedures. In fact, this media environment can be so relaxing (or simply distracting) that it was said to reduce sedation needs by 28 per cent in one Chicago-based study.

Actually, on second thought, that pink freaks me out even more than the red. [Philips via CNET]

As Unplgged noted, it’s kind of like “an audio version of a lava lamp”, which seems like a good way to describe a speaker that utilises light and water. It’s only a concept at the moment, but I like the visual approach to music. [Yuki Yamamoto via Designboom via MocoLoco via Unplgged]

The only problem is that Robolamps have not gone commercial, but if they did, I have no doubt that they would sell. Well, maybe not the robot that looks like it’s admiring its own giant wang, but other than that… [Robolamp on Facebook via Pocket-Lint]

I rarely get truly impressed by gadgets. They may be beautiful. They may do nice tricks. But very rarely they make me smile out of pure wonderment. That’s exactly what happened when I watched the Fiat Lux Lamp in action.

At first sight, the Fiat Lux Lamp is just a lamp: One plain orb with a smaller sphere attached to its side. It’s just a lamp until you turn it on, by grabbing the smaller sphere and making it float under the sphere, where it will stay until you decide to turn it off. No wires. Just thin air between the lamp orb and the sphere, and the forces of magnetism. [Constance Guisset via Unplggd]

They are not just light sources, however. These LED towers also collect rainwater and funnel sunlight to the multiple levels of the 1km long Expo Boulevard. [World Architecture News via Inhabitat]

“The complexity of curves and required thinness could not be duplicated in any other material while still maintaining its ability to support itself completely…”

Usually when I picture carbon fibre, I imagine that monotonous, slate-coloured slab that’s delicately thin but mostly flat — or I picture the Ossur cheetah legs that are curved but only for industrial utility.

I would have never imagined carbon fibre as a ribbon of light.

[Contemporist via cribcandy]

I suppose this is the right bed for you if you prefer to pleasure partners like you’re a character in a supernatural slasher film or in an ’80s metal music video — but I digress. The bed, nightstand and wall lamp combo are handcrafted from rotten teak planks which provide ideal cavities to embed LEDs (a clear epoxy material generates the light colour effect). Guys with little taste and lots of money can score a set for $US7500. [Treecycled Furniture via Born Rich]

Flickr user kmkelley617’s bacon lamp is real and it’s (mostly) edible. The shade is made out of 99 per cent hand-woven bacon which was then baked as a mould in the oven, probably so kmkelley617 wouldn’t find himself violently ill should he get mouthy in the middle of a spontaneous-yet-inevitable man-on-lamp lovemaking session.

The only room we see for improvement is to replace that light bulb with something of a higher wattage so the lamp becomes a dual bacon idol/bacon cooker, rather than solely the former.

[flickr via Oddity Central via The Presurfer via technabob]

Frederik Krebs came up with this combination of solar panels and LED lights which, while definitely a work in progress, could bring cheap light to some of the world’s poorest regions. I call the lamps a work in progress because despite being durable enough to last several years, they run at a mere 1 per cent efficiency. But with the expected final cost of $US7 a piece, they’re full of life-changing potential.

Some prototypes of the lamps are currently being tested in Zambia. As seen in the picture, the solar panels are left laying flat during the day and then rolled up (and secured with a snap button) into a cone-shaped lamp. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing the results of the prototype tests and a final product, because no one should go without artificially lit nights. [IEEE Spectrum via Pop Sci]